Restoring Mathematics Identities of Black Learners: A Curricular Approach

Beyond Equity as Inclusion: A Framework of “Rightful Presence” for Guiding Justice-Oriented Studies in Teaching and Learning

“…Even more, the extension of rights conceals the reproduction of unjust sociohistorical power dynamics that undergird the set of rights extended. Youth historically marginalized in the disciplines and schooling are expected to reconfigure themselves towards the dominant White, patriarchal, English-speaking culture, regardless of the real and symbolic violence such acts require (Gholson & Robinson, 2019). Such views of equity do not fully account for the political struggles that oppressed others might enact through collective resistance as they draw from their rich cultural practices (e.g., Black love) to inscribe new meanings to their rights in the spaces they inhabit (Kohli & Pizzaro, 2016).…”

“…One powerful example reflective of this tenet involves Gholson and Robinson’s (2019) description of the role “restorative practices” can play in Black learners’ engagement in mathematics. The authors describe the Silhouette Activity, where learners write and draw the internal/external messages they have received as Black mathematics doers and knowers, creating new dialogic spaces for making visible and present the physical, symbolic, and epistemological violence they have experienced in mathematics classrooms.…”

Understanding Racialized Learning Environments: Moving from Exclusionary to Inclusive Secondary Mathematics Classrooms

“…Working Paper v1.0 | Do NOT share without written consent of lead authors To combat the systemic injustices (or violence, as the authors state) in the mathematics classroom that affects Black students, Gholson and Robinson (2019) explored a critical intervention that attends to the strained relationship between Black students and traditional mathematics, called Mathematics for Justice, Identity, and Meta-Cognition (MaJIC). This curriculum allows students to explore mathematics from their own perspective to allow them to place themselves in the position of a mathematics learner and a valued contributor in the mathematics community, helps students develop the agency to explore different pathways, and creates a discourse between racialized images prevalent in mathematics by helping students construct images that highlight pathways to success in mathematics (Gholson & Robinson, 2019) Finally, Hand and colleagues (2013) explored disrupting frameworks that label students based on deficits that teachers perceive to have based on student struggles. Instead, the authors found that adapting and assigning tasks to respond to students' struggles removes the blame from the student to the barriers placed before them (Hand et al, 2013).…”

“…Much like Wilson and colleagues (2019), many researchers whose work in equity surrounding children in minoritized communities found that the overarching practice that helps Working Paper v1.0 | Do NOT share without written consent of lead authors to position a student as competent is scaffolding. By adapting and assigning tasks and responding to students' struggles not only will it open up a gateway to connect with students' experiences to support conceptual understanding, but it also allows students to reconcile with their school and cultural identities (Gholson & Robinson, 2019;Hand et al, 2013;Louie, 2015;Nasir et al, 2013;Sheth, 2019).…”

“…Equitable noticing, teacher uptake of students' ideas, praising student efforts as well as questioning their thinking to push for a better understanding are all ways that teachers can help validate student identities (Louie, 2017;Sheth, 2019;Gholson & Robinson, 2019;Nasir et al, 2012).…”